The Famous 29th Stairway
One of my friends was a WW2 veteran of the 29th Infantry Division. In his collection of photos he had one of him taken in Holland in late 1944, just after he had received a battlefield promotion to 2nd Lt. He vaguely recalled getting his photo taken at the time. I had a copy of this photo taken of him standing in front of a seemingly innocent staircase for years. Then one day while leafing through a stack of postcards for sale at a flea market I spotted another soldier at the SAME staircase!
Sometime afterwards the 29th Division veteran's newsletter ran an article containing a THIRD photo taken there. And with the discovery of another "stairway" photo in the collection of another friend of mine I decided to put them here on the web for the fun of it. Possibly they are all battlefield commissioned officers- we just don't know. Maybe men from other divisions ended up being photographed at the same spot. Again, we don't know. But, in any event it remains a small and interesting corner of a very big war.
But wait! There's more!
"Your recent correspondence on the staircase intrigued me, and I resolved to figure it out. I have . . . The location is a small photography shop in the Dutch town of Brunssum, fairly near Heerlen, maybe 20 miles NE of Maastricht. It is immediately adjacent to the German border. Apparently there was a small R&R facility there, which included a place for showers. Typically, if soldiers came out of combat and went for a shower, they would receive a new uniform. Then, upon leaving the place, many spotted the photography shop and decided to have their picture taken. At least that's the story I've been told . . . The rough time period for the photos was November - December 1944."
Joseph Balkoski, Command Historian, MD National Guard
If you have one of these "famous stairway photos" please let me know. If you can ID any of the unknown gentlemen in them by all means speak up! Drop us a line at fatherswar at gmail dot com
| Subject | His Unit | Photo from | |
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Lt. Don Van Roosen | Company G, 115th Infantry | Don Van Roosen |
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Unknown | "possibly the 110th Artillery?" | Jon Gawne |
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Sgt Millard F. Patterson | Battery A 224th FA Bn | Yannick Creach |
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Lt. Bill Briggman | Company D, 175th Infantry | The 29er newsletter |
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Lt. Earl Tweed | Commander of Company L, 115th Infantry | Yannick Creach |
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Pfc Gordon J. Golding | HQ Company, 2nd Bn. 175th Infantry | Yannick Creach |
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Al Bartelloni | HQ Company, 3rd Bn. 175th Infantry | The 29er newsletter |